Thoughts on recent Ninth Circuit and California appellate cases from Professor Shaun Martin at the University of San Diego School of Law.

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

In Re Joshua S. (Cal. Ct. App. - Feb. 8, 2011)

I just got back from San Francisco last night. During my (limited) free time there, I occasionally found myself wondering: "Where's the best place in this town to get some seafood?" To answer that query, there are a number of different sources; Zagats, Yelp, etc.

But for those visitors with slightly different interests than mine, perhaps they occasionally wondered: "Where's the best place in this town to get some crack?" There are, however, few publicly-available sources that provide such information. For example, putting "Best Places To Buy Crack in San Francisco" into Google provides a variety of hits about Best Buy stores in that city. Helpful if you want to add some personal electronics to your crack purchase, but presumably not what the searcher is generally looking for. So where to go to find the desired information?

Justice Kline writes an opinion in a juvenile probation case. It's otherwise unremarkable, but it contains the following on page three, at which point the Court of Appeal relates that -- according to San Francisco police officers -- "more base rock cocaine gets sold and used in that area, that corner (the northwest corner of Ellis and Jones), that intersection than any block in San Francisco."

Wow. The Court of Appeal even tells you which corner at Ellis and Jones has the most sales. Talk about precision!

Here's a map. (You can also street-level-view the thing. And notice that even as the Google camera passes, in broad daylight, there's a healthy number of people "hanging out" on that corner.)

So that's a public service.

It's also an amazing coincidence. Because during my trip to San Francisco, I stayed at a hotel on Nob Hill, and yesterday morning, decided to walk (rather than take a cab) to do my oral argument at the California Supreme Court. The Court is on McAllister Street, so I walked up California Street, took a left on Jones, and about halfway down, guess which intersection I unwittingly transgressed? Yep. Ellis and Jones. The crack cocaine capital of San Francisco.

I don't recall whether I was on the Northwest or Northeast corner. I can attest, however, that this particular part of the Tenderloin is, well, a bit run-down. I can't personally affirm that it's Crack Central, since that's not the way I choose to get amped up for an oral argument. All I can say is that there weren't a lot of other people there dressed in suits.

So a neat little factoid published by the Court of Appeal. On the same day I walked right past where it's talking about.